WE HAVE LOST OUR EDGE.

Marty and I have bought and sold many homes in the last 43 years. We haved lived in at least 10 places around the country. We have bought and sold 6 houses.  We know how to get ready for the sale.  We know how to run through the house and make it perfect when a Realtor is on the way.  Yes, we know.  But things don't always work out the way we know how to do.

When it gets dark, we pull out stuff that the buyers/Realtors shouldn't see: paper towel racks, waste baskets, soap dishes, shampoo bottles, scatter rugs, pillows and blankets on the easy chairs, hampers, etc.  We wrap up in the blankets, we live as if we still live in this house.  Not a good thing.  We no longer live here, we are caretakers.

This morning I got a call from an agent who missed the Broker's Tour and wanted to come by " in a few minutes".  You can never tell an agent no.  I said come on by.  And then I realized I had a lot to do.  I had so much stuff to put in closets, under shelves, in drawers.  How the hell did so much stuff get out of the closets over night?

I was flying around putting stuff back in the closets, in the pantry, turning on lights, opening drapes.  I wasn't going to make it.  And thank goodness, Marty came home before leaving for a closing in San Francisco.  He walked in the door and I yelled at him, " I need help, agent on the way, take the upstairs!"  Poor Baby did not even get a hello kiss.  He dropped his briefcase, and took off.  We put everything in its hiding place.  And the house looked lovely when the agent arrived.

We learned our lesson.  Tonight when we finished watching TV in the living room, pillows and blankets went back into the closet.  Tomorrow the hamper and other extra things in our bedroom will be in the closet by 9:00.  Kitchen items will be hidden as soon as breakfast is over.  We will be ready.

The hardest part of having the house on the market?  Being up and dressed by 9:00a.m.  I am always up, but I may not be dressed until 11:00 or 12:00.  I see no point in being dressed early and then cleaning house, doing laundry, whatever.  Get the work done, then clean yourself up.  No more.  I will be ready to receive buyers by 9:00. 

I hate having a house on the market.

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Why I didn't volunteer for a couple of weeks.

I told you all a couple of weeks ago that Marty and I were really really busy.  So I wasn't volunteering or doing much blogging.  Well now it can be told.  Our house is on the market and we were getting it ready to sell.  We are downsizing.

Selling a house is nothing like it was 40 years ago.  Then you took down the pictures from the "I love me wall", cleaned the windows and carpet, and boom you were ready.  Today it is a major project.  We have depersonalized the house.  No personal pictures allowed, most books packed up, art collections packed up, Marty's inventory of blown glass pieces off the shelves, furniture moved into the garage, nothing on the kitchen counters, anything that will fit in a pocket or purse packed up. 

You have to lock up TV remotes, medicine, jewelry, laptops, anything valuable.  I used to push things into the back of a drawer and cover it up.  No more.  People go through the drawers, steal everything not nailed down. So we have bicycle locks on an armoire and another chest.  Also we have a locking desk, a locking file cabinet, and a safe. Times have changed.

We have packed up everything we do not absolutely have to have. Well, I guess I don't really need 5 sets of dishes in the cabinets.  But I was good, I packed up 4 sets of china and all my silver.  Do you see my weakness here?   We have also cleaned out and donated  a huge amount of household items and a couple of hundred cookbooks.

Marty and I have packed up at least 60 boxes. Many of those we had great help from Cecelia, Kirsten, and our Realtor, Michael. We have moved half the furniture into the garage.  And thanks to son Erik and our friend Hubert for their strong young backs.  They moved furniture and boxes all one Sunday morning.

Friend Paul had the hardest job  of packing.  He packed up our art glass collection.  He is a packing machine.

Marty has painted, cleaned the outside windows (I don't do ladders), power washed the house, and put in 8 new windows.  Our house is over 70 years old.  And to sell we had to replace windows.  So Marty and our lovely contractor friend, Karl, did those 8 windows.  I have steamed cleaned carpet, cleaned cabinets, sealed and polished the granite, washed windows.  We have done a million other little things.

Marty and I have worked so hard and are so tired.  I keep looking for those packers that showed up when we were corporate gypsies. Why don't they show up anymore? 

If you know someone who is looking for a lovely home, send them our way.  The listing is here.

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School Daze

After missing a last week, today I was back working with the first graders.  These are lovely sweet children.  But as I said before, they are not as advanced as students we've had before.  The pencils are held wrong; many don't know their letters/sounds or numbers; many tune out all directions.  We have some big time work ahead of us this year.

I worked with them on math.  They were to color in blocks to show an equation.  For example, they were to color 4 blocks red, then 2 blocks green.  And the equation would be 4 + 2 = 6. Then you switched the addends and had 2 + 4 = 6.   Well, that was our dream.  We had  3+3 = 6, 4+3=9 and it was downhill from there. Some became so wrapped up in coloring that the equations never were filled in. 

One thing I do with the children is listen to them read.  Good, bad, indifferent readers, all children need the chance to read to an adult.  They like to have the one on one attention.  This went better than the math did.

My favorite thing to do with the children is to read a story to them.  Ms. H picks the storybook to go with the time of year, units they are doing, or just plain fun reads.  Today I read Apples to Oregon by Deborah Hopkinson and illustrated by Nancy Carpenter. (I would link Carpenter, but I can't find a good website for her.)  This story is based on fact, and is funny.  A pioneer family brings fruit tree seedlings to Oregon, we have all the trials and tribulations of keeping the plants alive.  I do all the voices and explain words they might not understand (prairie schooner, Gravenstein). 

This volunteer job is very tiring physcially.  Lots of bending over very short desks, lots of walking from student to student, even sitting in the very low chairs is a challenge at my age.  But I do it and I love it.  First Graders are the best.

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WEDDINGS?

Today I was finally back to the marriage factory after nearly 2 weeks off. (that will be a blog later this week) The clerks were thrilled I was there to take up the duties of the marriage commissioner so the staff could do their real work.  I arrived early because I had missed doing wedding ceremonies.

And I sat for 3 1/2 hours.  No one was even buying licenses let alone getting married today. At 3:55 the lobby was suddenly full.  People wanted to buy marriage licenses.  But did they want to get married today?  I waited another 20 minutes as they worked through the customers. 

Nope, no one wanted to marry today.  So I gathered all my belongings and came home.  And this must be the most boring blog I have written.

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Garbage truck update

Yesterday I ended the blog with, One more truck to go.  That was the recycling truck. I had given the office info over the phone Monday.  She promised they would start the yard service the next day. This was the can we really have trouble getting up to the street.  We had so much stuff to pick up.  I was worried.  We had so much it would be awful if they skipped us. We had 200 pounds in the can, and beside it, 8 grocery bags full, tied up cardboard strips, and lots of other stuff. 

The truck came up the hill.  I was ready to run out and flag him down. No need to.  The truck stopped, the driver came down the steps, and carried everything up the steps.  The system worked the first time.

Stayed tuned for next week.  Will the 2 trucks I flagged down stop next Tuesday?

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DID YOU EVER CHASE DOWN THE GARBAGE TRUCKS?

Today is garbage day. And I have a long tale to tell. 

I decided to take advantage of the senior/medical disability service of our garbage companies. We live in the Oakland Hills and are downhill from the street. Even young people have trouble getting cans to the street.  The first flat spot to store our cans is down 12 steps from the street.  That would be 12 steps to drag the cans up when the cans are full.  We are the king and queen of recycling.  That can is huge and always weighs at least 150 -200 pounds. Poor Marty is killing himself dragging that up to the street.  And then there is the green waste can and the "what won't go in the others" can.

I called for info and they told me to fill out the form, get the doctor to sign it, and fax it in. They would even set up things with the recycling company which is a separate company.  I questioned that and she said it  would be taken care of.  Sounds easy doesn't it? 

There are no forms online, so they mailed it nearly a week later.  I had emailed my doctor about the problem of getting older and some things just get harder to do.  In less than 24 hours I had picked up his letter.  Man, I love Kaiser!  When we finally got the form, I filled it out and Marty faxed it to the garbage company.  Nearly a week later no news on when the service starts.  I called Friday, they hadn't received the fax.  We sent it again, requesting they call us when received.   No call. 

On Monday they called, fax received.  The service would start Tuesday (today).  I made a remark about how heavy the recycling is and she said, "You have to contact them.  We have nothing to do with recycling."  I threw a hissy fit.  The one can we had real trouble getting up the hill, and I have to start over.  They lost the first fax, they didn't contact me about service starting, they gave me the wrong info, and now no service for the recycling this week.  The clerk was rude, nothing was their fault and tried to hang up on me.  I out yelled her and got the information on who to contact at the other company.

I called the recycling company, no problem.  She took the info over the phone and said if  I faxed the form and doctor's letter; they would pick up on our day this week.  That would be today.

I couldn't sleep because of the heat, so I was up early for me.  I heard the garbage trucks coming up the hill.  They picked up next door, skipped me (no cans on the street), and picked up the next house.  Damn, all cans are full and with the heat the green waste is really stinky and has ants. 

I went out to talk to the drivers.  I was a vision of loveliness:  bed head, no makeup, my 12 year old dress length T shirt, and flip flops.  I didn't get there in time.  So I waited, they turn around at the corner and come downhill.  I waved at the first driver, he got in the truck and started driving, I stood there.  He stopped, I explained they were to pull the cans up.  He hadn't received word, no problem.  He would do it now.  The next driver, same thing.  YAY.

At 7:45 the garbage company called.  How was my second week of yard service going? Second week?  She had received the first fax and set everything up.  I told her I had to chase down the trucks, and all the stuff vented above.  She will take care of it.  We will see. 

One more truck to go.

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FYI

I am insanely busy right now.  Because of that, the wedding gig and the working with first graders has been put on hold.  I plan to skip the volunteering for one more week.  Then I hope things will settle down and be normal, whatever that will be.

If I have time this week, I might comment on some TV programs. Marty and I collapse each night in front of the TV with our Bourbon.  The new season has started, maybe something out there is worth watching.

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